NAVY, MARINES TO EXAMINE SECURITY AT BASES

Quick examination of safety policies urged

The Navy and Marine Corps will do a full examination of security at bases, as the Navy Yard shooting in Washington, D.C., raises questions about whether America’s military installations are vulnerable and if the vetting process for civilian contractors is broken.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus on Tuesday directed a four-star admiral and a three-star general to conduct a speedy look by Oct. 1 at whether existing base security policy is being followed in the wake of civilian contractor Aaron Alexis’ bloody rampage.

Authorities say he had the proper government ID to get onto the Navy Yard, which houses several high-level offices, including the commander of naval installations, the Navy’s judge advocate and the home of the chief of naval operations.

How Alexis got into the NAVSEA building is another matter. People familiar with the building say visitors buzz to get in and then must present proper credentials to a guard. Indications are that Alexis shot his way past the guard.

A Pentagon Inspector General’s report released Tuesday criticized the Navy for outsourcing its contractor base access process, starting in 2010 or 2011. The report has been in the works for some time but was made public following a request from House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, R-Palmdale.

The report says that the Navy’s access card system “did not effectively mitigate access control risks” and links the failure to the Navy’s attempt to cut costs. As a result, 52 felons gained routine access to military bases, the report concludes.

In the longer term, the Department of the Navy plans to take a deeper look at whether it should increase security in ways that might fundamentally alter base culture — perhaps even akin to the way airport procedures changed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Right now, troops in uniform, retirees, civilian defense workers and some mostly white-collar contractors must have a military-issued photo access card to enter Navy and Marine Corps bases in San Diego County. This is the kind of card Alexis had, according to a Navy official Tuesday.

Other civilian contractors get a separate access card, the kind criticized in the inspector general’s report.

In addition, guests invited to retirement ceremonies and other events can often drive on base by simply showing a driver’s license.

Some military buildings require an extra credential to get inside. Not many require visitors to pass through a metal detector.

Will any of that change? Navy officials offered few details about their plans on Tuesday. Additionally, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has called for a worldwide review of U.S. military base security, and President Barack Obama directed his budget office to conduct a government-wide review of security standards for contractors and employees.

Peter Daly, president of the U.S. Naval Institute and a retired three-star admiral, said getting to zero risk is probably not realistic.

“If you have a person who has already gone through one layer of your defenses because they have the credentials, and they are now an insider with some familiarity with your procedures, and they are armed and they are not concerned about their own life — that is a very daunting scenario to come out with zero losses,” he said.

“Because the kind of checks and balances that you’d have to put in place may result in a situation where you are not able to function — because you need contractors and people to be able to do business.”

Daly said that restricting car traffic, such as allowing only certain categories of people to drive onto base, might be a workable measure in certain locations. That could allow the use of metal detectors at gateway points, he said.

Several indicators point toward a future spotlight on granting credentials to contract workers — especially as the Navy Yard shooting follows the massive intelligence leaks from National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

In Alexis’ case, he received a secret clearance when he was working as a full-time Navy reservist from 2007 to 2011, Navy spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a CNN interview Tuesday.

That clearance, which is good for 10 years with periodic rechecks, went with him into the civilian world, Kirby said.

Alexis was working on computer systems as an employee of The Experts, a subcontractor to Hewlett-Packard Co., according to published reports.

Alexis had two previous arrests — one in 2010 for allegedly shooting into the ceiling of his Fort Worth apartment and another in Seattle in 2004 for allegedly shooting out a construction worker’s tires. He was never prosecuted. Neither incident, if known, apparently affected his clearance status.

“You don’t have to be an angel your whole life. But if you’ve had arrests, violence issues, mental health issues, these are the issues that will prevent you from getting a security clearance,” he said.

Rinckey was critical of a move by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to outsource background checks because of a massive backlog at one time.

The ranks of contract workers helping to do background checks on contractors and federal employees swelled 15 percent to almost 6,800 between 2011 and 2012, according to an investigation by Bloomberg News.

Daly of the U.S. Naval Institute said a common-sense reaction to this and the Snowden case might be a special sweep of contractor records.

“I don’t think it’s overkill, with the capabilities we have today, to crunch your current database of contractors who have clearances and to do another sort and background check on them,” he said.

What about the people coming to military bases for ceremonies? Will the Navy Yard fallout make it tougher for civilians to attend?

Daly says maybe.

“I think what you’re going to see is more examination in the future about whether an event will occur on base or off base,” he said.